'Vanity Fair' Goes Gushy Over Graydon's 'Gonzo'

Graydon Carter must be so relieved! His new movie, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, got a good review in his magazine, Vanity Fair. That would've been so embarrassing if it hadn't, right?

Actually, "good" is an understatement. Patricia Bosworth, who wrote up Gonzo (on page 30 of the July issue) calls it "an absolutely riveting documentary" and "an extraordinary film" with "a spectacular ending."

Of course the review contains the proper disclosure...sort of: Bosworth says the film was "produced by [Alex] Gibney and Graydon Carter" and leaves it at that, evidently assuming that Vanity Fair's 6 million-plus readers all know who skippers the ship. (In contrast, when Bruce Handy plugged Carter's last documentary, Chicago 10, in the February issue, he was sure to note that "Carter is Vanity Fair's editor and, it's true, my boss.")

But maybe Bosworth knows that, when it comes to the movie business, Carter is not exactly a stickler about this conflict-of-interest stuff.